The Caldwell actually opened in the 20’s as a small downtown house, seating about 600. In the 50’s it closed as competition from the bigger Park Theatre down the street proved to be too much. The Park burned to the ground in the 70’s. Around 1996, CJM Theatres, which sold most of its other locations to Clearview by that time, struck a deal to resurrect the Caldwell Theatre (which had been used as a factory and offices for years since it closed). Clearview sued, claiming that in their purchase agreement CJM was not allowed to open a theatre within 15 miles of a location that they sold (Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove, and the Bellevue in Upper Montclair are nearby). Clearview then took over the project and opened the Caldwell, with CJM as the landlord, around 1997. There are four small auditoriums. A party room is located in one of the former retail spaces. The place is very popular in the town and is a comfortable place to see a movie. There are no interior remnants of the former theatre left as the place had been gutted for its reuse in the 50’s, but the facade is original.

Plans for a perkier downtown Caldwell are stuck in limbo while competing movie developers face off over who can run a theater on the six-block strip of Bloomfield Avenue.

The former Park Theater, located in the heart of downtown, was supposed to reopen this month under new ownership with five screens and new plush seats, carpeting, and curtains after years of use as offices, a dance studio and a bowling alley.

The cinema was touted this summer by Mayor Paul Jemas as the cornerstone of downtown revitalization. The borough’s walkable stretch of Bloomfield Avenue offers daytime shopping but lacks a large magnet to draw people for food and entertainment on weekends and evenings. The legal dispute pits Jesse Sayegh of Cedar Grove against Chatham-based Clearview Cinemas and its owner, Bud Mayo. Both men built their fortunes in the movie business by focusing on small downtown theaters. Clearview now runs 45 movie theaters in New York and New Jersey, including most of the theaters in the western Essex and eastern Morris County region where Caldwell is located.

At issue are the details of a year-old, $9.5 million deal in which Clearview bought Sayegh’s theaters in Upper Montclair, Cedar Grove, Kinnelon and Middlebrook, according to court records.

Mayo’s attorney maintains that a clause in the contract prevents Sayegh from opening a movie theater within seven miles of any of the four locations. The Caldwell site at 317 Bloomfield Ave. is 2.59 miles from Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove and 3.51 miles from the Bellevue Theater in Upper Montclair.

Sayegh holds that the agreement allowed for one exception in an “undisclosed” location, which turned out to be Caldwell. He said he would not comment on the matter while it is in litigation.

The suit is heading for a spring trial. In the meantime, a state Superior Court judge ruled in October that Sayegh must halt construction plans until the dispute is settled. The injunction blocks a third party from developing the site.

If Mayo prevails, the theater could be delayed for five years unless Sayegh and Mayo reach a deal before then to allow Clearview to run the cinema. Sayegh’s offers so far have been “unreasonable,” according to Robert Lister, Clearview’s vice president.

‘'Five years? We’d be in college,“ exclaimed Jessica McDonnell, an eighth-grader from West Caldwell who learned of the legal dispute after school yesterday from a reporter.

News of the delay hit hard at Grover Cleveland Middle School, where hundreds of students from Caldwell and West Caldwell were looking forward to the freedom of walking to a local hangout. When they want to see a movie, they must ask for rides to theaters in Wayne, Parsippany, Montclair or Livingston.

‘'We’d be able to walk there, and our parents – we wouldn’t have to bug them for rides a lot,“ said Kevin MacKen, 13, of West Caldwell. "They get annoyed.”

No, it’s the article that’s incorrect. Believe me, the Park was a block up on the same side of the street. It burned down and was demolished. There is a bank on the site now. The Caldwell was the old Caldwell Theatre.